Like everyone else, our schedule has been a little goonie lately. We took on a few too many activities this spring for our family…we like a bit more downtime. I am so happy that things are starting to wind down as we are quickly approaching summer holidays. This is one from last week when one of our activities was cancelled (thankfully) and the kids had time to just stomp ants with friends. I love that the days are getting longer (the days do not get as long in California as they do in Calgary) but it is still nice to have some time after dinner to play. The ponytail sticking up here makes me smile:).

I am late with this but took me a bit to get a picture with all three in and looking happy to have their picture taken. Even the dog does not like having his picture taken. There have been a few times he has grabbed the camera strap with his teeth…I make sure it is around my neck around him!

So each year, I take a Mother’s Day picture for my mum because I know it would be what she would want. Amazingly it has been 7 years since she passed and it does not get easier. Probably because this has definitely been one of the most challenging parenting years we have faced so far and I could have used her expertise in so many areas. Thankfully we are making it through these challenges though and no doubt they have made me stronger and a better mother having gone through them.

I am SUPER thankful for all of the motherly influences in my life though. I have truly learned so much from so many people over the last 7 years and I look forward to continuing to learn and try my very hardest for my little people!

Had to include a picture of the chaos and then one my mum would have appreciated more:).

It is a very rare occasion that one of my children asks me to grab my camera…so you would imagine my shock when this one came running in tonight yelling “Mom, come on out here and bring your camera…it’s cuteness overload”. What is a girl to do:).

I put myself on course over the last little while to learn Lightroom (a photo organizing program). Sadly it has been sitting in my closet for a couple of years now and although I knew that it would improve efficiency, I did not want to mess with the process that I had in place for years. Some days you would never know that at one point my job was to improve efficiencies for companies:). Anyways, I am sooooo glad that I finally took the time to start to learn this program. It has made so many aspects of my job much more efficient. One of them being putting together blog posts…sizing and organizing for a blog post can be a pain. Hopefully setting up a few templates for myself will make this process much easier and save me some time. Here is just a few from the last couple of months to make sure I like how this template looks:).